This year’s MA in Design: Expanded Practice degree show, “Confluence” will be open to the public on 13-16 December. As we approach the day of the exhibition opening, we’re giving you a preview of the diverse projects that will be on display. Today, we’re looking at the work of Charis Poon:
“This year, two endlessly complex concerns have occupied my mind, Brexit and the 2019 Hong Kong Protests. I wanted to respond to these two concerns with positive action that was celebratory and encouraged questions, even while I was fully cognizant that design would not be a magic wand solution.
To Bring Back is a podcast where in each episode I make an attempt to find the thing someone wants from their hometown in order to understand place, movement, and the sense of belonging. I asked London-based Europeans what they would like me to bring back for them from their hometowns and then I went looking for those things. Throughout the process I found my encounters with people to be beautifully poetic and saw seemingly unremarkable things in rich detail. Which is why I made a podcast for listeners who care about those same things: understanding place, movement, and belonging; poetic encounters with others; and seeing unremarkable things differently. Episode one begins with going to The Netherlands to find an herbal liquor called Schrobbeler for Birgit and episode seven concludes the series with a search for croissants and butter in Paris.
I believe society is better the more inclusive we are and To Bring Back was constructed with the hope of demonstrating that inclusivity is valuable.
The methods used to produce this podcast included setting out a field for investigation, finding a frame of enquiry, recording fieldnotes in the chosen field, and combining those observations. These methods of traversing through places can be used to address other concerns or simply to find a way of being that is a rejection of the feeling that nothing can be done.”
Goldsmiths Design Blog 